AI Architect

Description AI Architect City of Cleveland — Information Technology & Services Department

The City of Cleveland is seeking an AI Architect to serve as the strategic and technical authority for all artificial intelligence initiatives across City operations. This role combines the vision of an enterprise AI Architect with the hands-on depth of a principal AI developer — responsible for planning, designing, and personally implementing end-to-end AI systems and intelligent workflows from inception through production. The AI Architect owns the full delivery lifecycle, ensures production-grade reliability, maintains high-level proficiency with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF), and drives AI adoption as a transformative, mission-critical capability for City departments.

Examples of Duties Typical duties performed, include, but are not limited to oversight of daily operations to ensure alignment with departmental objectives and organizational priorities. Dependent upon service area, may manage and direct staff to maintain efficient workflows, ensuring productivity and high-quality outcomes. Develop, implement, and evaluate operational strategies, procedures, and best practices to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Monitor performance metrics and identify opportunities for process improvement. Collaborate with leadership and cross-functional teams to support departmental initiatives. Perform other job-related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications Bachelor’s degree required. Substitution: Two (2) years of any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience may substitute for each year of college education lacking. Six (6) years of full-time management experience required. Four (4) years of demonstrated leadership experience. Strong critical thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to identify process inefficiencies and implement effective solutions. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Valid State of Ohio Driver’s License required.

Supplemental Information Duties And Responsibilities AI Strategy, Architecture & Governance

• Define and own the enterprise AI architecture vision, standards, and roadmap aligned with City strategic objectives
• Lead AI use case identification, feasibility assessment, prioritization, and business value modeling across all City departments
• Architect end-to-end AI systems and intelligent workflows — from data ingestion and model design through integration, deployment, and monitoring
• Establish, maintain, and enforce a comprehensive AI governance framework with high-level proficiency in the NIST AI RMF (Govern, Map, Measure, manage functions), including risk categorization, model documentation, impact assessments, and compliance standards
• Continuously evaluate and refine AI governance policies, ensuring all City AI systems are mapped to applicable NIST AI RMF risk tiers and controls throughout their lifecycle
• Serve as the City's subject matter authority on AI capabilities, vendor evaluation, emerging technologies, and responsible AI practices
• Develop and maintain AI solution blueprints, reference architectures, and technical decision records for the AI Center of Excellence

End-to-End AI Development & Engineering

• Design, develop, and personally implement production-grade AI systems including RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, LLM integrations, and multi-modal AI applications
• Build and optimize AI/ML pipelines using Azure AI services, Azure Databricks, Azure OpenAI, and related cloud-native platforms
• Develop orchestration layers and automation workflows integrating AI systems with enterprise platforms (Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Copilot Studio, SharePoint, Dynamics)
• Write high-quality, production-ready code across the full AI stack — backend APIs, data processing pipelines, prompt engineering frameworks, and AI tooling
• Conduct rigorous evaluation, benchmarking, and fine-tuning of language models and AI components to meet accuracy, latency, and safety thresholds
• Implement robust monitoring, logging, alerting, and incident response capabilities across all deployed AI systems
• Continuously test, experiment, and explore emerging AI technologies, models, and frameworks — implementing and validating new use cases in controlled sandbox environments before progressing through staged production deployment

Technical Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Experience building AI solutions on Microsoft Azure (Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Services, Azure Databricks) or equivalent enterprise cloud AI platforms
• Demonstrated experience applying the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) or equivalent AI governance standards to production AI systems

Core Competencies

• Advanced proficiency in Python and at least one additional language (C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, or PowerShell) for AI system development
• Expert-level knowledge of LLM architectures, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and AI orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, or equivalent)
• High-level proficiency with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) — including the Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage functions — with the ability to apply governance controls at the architectural level across the full AI system lifecycle
• Strong command of responsible AI principles, AI ethics, and enterprise AI risk management, with the ability to operationalize governance requirements into technical controls and documentation
• Proven ability to establish and operate sandbox and staging environments for continuous AI experimentation, technology evaluation, and safe new use case validation
• Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical executive and departmental stakeholders
• Demonstrated leadership, organizational, and project management capabilities in cross-functional technology environments
• Strong communication, documentation, and organizational skills required
• Valid State of Ohio Driver’s License required

Preferred Qualifications Technical Expertise

• Deep expertise with Microsoft Azure AI platform: Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Foundry, Azure Databricks, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure AI Search
• Advanced experience with Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps), and Microsoft 365 Copilot extensibility and deployment
• Proficiency in MLOps practices including CI/CD for AI systems, model versioning, automated evaluation pipelines, and production monitoring
• Experience with vector databases, embedding models, knowledge graph integration, and hybrid search architectures for enterprise RAG systems
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Purview for AI data governance, sensitivity labeling, and compliance integration
• Familiarity with multi-agent AI architectures, tool-use frameworks, and orchestration patterns for complex agentic workflows
• Experience with Azure Active Directory, RBAC, and Managed Identity in the context of secure AI deployments
• Background in .NET/C# backend development, API design, or cloud infrastructure engineering considered a strong asset
• Experience designing and managing AI sandbox and test environments, including the definition of promotion gates and criteria for production readiness

Domain & Organizational

• Serve as technical lead and architect-of-record for all AI projects, guiding delivery teams from design through production cutover
• Partner with department directors, IT leadership, legal, HR, and operations teams to translate business requirements into AI solution designs
• Lead technical discovery sessions, architecture reviews, proof-of-concept evaluations, and production readiness assessments
• Mentor developers, analysts, and technical staff on AI engineering practices, prompt engineering, responsible AI principles, and NIST AI RMF governance standards
• Present AI strategies, project roadmaps, and investment recommendations to executive leadership and City Council as needed

Production Operations & Continuous Improvement

• Ensure all AI systems meet enterprise standards for security, reliability, scalability, auditability, and regulatory compliance from development through production
• Establish CI/CD pipelines, MLOps practices, and automated testing frameworks for AI components across all deployment environments
• Oversee post-deployment performance monitoring, model drift detection, and iterative improvement cycles for all production AI systems
• Maintain comprehensive technical documentation, runbooks, and architecture artifacts for all production AI systems in alignment with NIST AI RMF Manage and Measure function requirements
• Operate and maintain a dedicated AI sandbox environment for continuous experimentation, proof-of-concept development, and safe evaluation of new AI technologies, vendor platforms, and emerging use cases prior to production consideration
• Define and execute structured test-to-production pipelines for new AI capabilities — including sandbox validation, integration testing, security review, governance sign-off, and staged production rollout
• Continuously assess the AI technology landscape, proactively identifying and piloting high-value innovations that can advance City service delivery and operational efficiency
• Lead lessons-learned reviews, post-incident analyses, and continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen AI system performance, resilience, and governance maturity
• Drive continuous evaluation of AI system outputs against NIST AI RMF Measure function criteria, ensuring ongoing trustworthiness, fairness, and explainability standards are met

Additional Minimum Qualifications Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, or closely related field from an accredited institution required; Graduate Degree (M.S. in Data Science, AI, Computer Science, or MBA with technology concentration) preferred

Experience

• Six to seven years of progressive, full-time experience in AI/ML engineering, AI architecture, or advanced software development with a strong AI focus required
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and deploying production AI systems, including LLM-based applications, RAG pipelines, or agentic AI workflows
• Proven track record of leading AI projects end-to-end — from architecture design through production deployment and operational monitoring
• Prior experience in public sector, municipal government, or regulated enterprise environments
• Experience operating or establishing an AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) or similar AI governance structure
• Advanced working knowledge of NIST AI RMF 1.0, including the ability to produce AI Risk Profiles, Trustworthiness Assessments, and governance documentation at the program level
• Demonstrated experience presenting AI business cases, architecture proposals, and program updates to C-suite or executive leadership

Preferred Certifications

• AI-102 (Azure AI Engineer Associate)
• AZ-305 (Azure Solutions Architect Expert)
• DP-100 (Azure Data Scientist Associate)
• AZ-204 (Azure Developer Associate)
• AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals)
• DP-203 (Azure Data Engineer Associate)
• AB-100 (Microsoft Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect)
• Or equivalent professional AI/cloud certifications

The City's guiding principles are as follows: Placing Clevelanders at the Center, Empowering Employees to Do Purposeful Work, Defining Clear and Pragmatic Objectives, Leading with Trust and Transparency, Striving for Equity in All We Do, and Embracing Change. All City employees are responsible for embracing and carrying out these principles in all that they do